About ann

With my grandfather in 1969
I was six in 1969, when the astronauts first landed on the moon. "What things we have seen in our lives," my grandfather said to my grandmother. "From horse-drawn carriages to this!" The stories they told that day inspired me to pursue a career in helping people tell their stories.

experience

I moved to College Station, Texas, shortly after graduating from college, thinking I would stay a few years and then move on. Those years turned into more than three decades of writing and editing experience, and I have loved almost every minute of it.
In addition to my own business, I also wrote for four presidents of Texas A&M University and three chancellors of the A&M System. I spent another decade with Texas A&M's division of marketing and communications, as well as with two state agencies, an alumni organization and a couple of nonprofits.

education

I got a well-rounded liberal arts education from a small, private college, as well as a two graduate degrees from one of the nation's largest and most prestigious research universities.
About to get my Ph.D.

Hendrix College

Since my time there, it's grown to about 1,500 students and added a football team. But Stoby's restaurant is still there, and the ivy-covered, red-brick buildings and spirit of discovery and camaraderie are as strong as ever. I earned a bachelor's degree in English and along the way also worked part-time as a reporter at the local paper, typesetter at a printing company, and intern at publishing house in Little Rock.

texas A&M University

As the late Charles Gordone, the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize in drama and a faculty member there once said, "When you think Texas, it's Texas A&M!" The Aggie--and Texan--core values of leadership, integrity, excellence, service, respect, and loyalty still infuse the student body of more than 77,000. I earned a master's degree and doctorate in higher education administration, both with a focus on public relations.
Receiving the T.M. Stinnett Award for Excellence in Scholarly Research

awards & activities

  • Dissertation of the Year Award
  • T.M. Stinnett Award for Excellence in Scholarly Research
  • One of 100 women chosen each year for the year-long Leadership Texas (now Leadership Women)
  • An Administrative Fulbright Grant to study higher education in Japan
  • Numerous awards for both my fiction and my professional work
  • Two-time president of Brazos Writers group in Central Texas
  • Two-time president of a local chapter of P.E.O., a philanthropic sorority that funds college scholarships
  • Presented at a national conference of the American Educational Research Association; a national editors' conference in Rochester, New York; and at Baylor University's Women in the Academy Symposium